"Police say a costumed 9-year-old girl was accidentally shot outside a western Pennsylvania home during a Halloween party by a relative who thought she was a skunk." What, don't you go skunk-shooting at Halloween parties? [ABC News]

  • http://twitter.com/ExileDispatches Joey H.

    You should remove the “alcohol” tag. http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/police-costumed-pa-girl-mistaken-for-skunk-shot/article_dbbcb796-e816-5bfe-8d62-8c8193a5f6cc.html

    • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

      There goes one excuse

      • awjt

         so they SAY….  but don’t believe everything you read.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Probably on glint.

  • http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers

    Pepe le Pew got bitter in his old age.

  • chgoliz

    What idiot shoots at a skunk that’s away on a hillside during a backyard party?  (Miss or maim, and your party’s over, thanks to the smell.)  And what idiot thinks a skunk is the size of a 9-year-old child?

    Actually, the part that really worries me is that this child was far enough away to *seem* that small, and yet her relative was still able to hit her with a major torso shot.  So, he’s a great shot with horrible judgment….that’s a really bad combination.  As has just been proven.

    • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

      I assumed that the kid was peering over the top of a hillside, partly obscured by the hill, and the shooter just caught movement and a glimpse of black and white. If you’re walking around with a hammer and want to bludgeon something to death with it, every problem looks like a nail.

  • http://www.facebook.com/neowolfwitch Wolf Ilandl Butler

    Some sort of IQ test really should be part of a background check for gun ownership… I was surprised this was in Pennsylvania, as I would have assumed a number of other states… :)

    • huskerdont

      Get away from the eastern portion, and PA is pretty, um, rural–a lot like West Virginia (not that I’m disparaging them, because it is a bit more varied than it’s given credit for). Anyway, I’ve been all over U.S., and the, um, rural people are in every state I’ve been to. A story of this type could have easily happened in California, New York, North Dakota–almost any state, really.

      • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

        I thought this happened in Sewickley, a fancy suburb of Pittsburgh, not the sticks. Then I noticed it was in New Sewickley, which … is the sticks.

        • hassenpfeffer

          Ah, Sewickley, where resident and mansion-owner Mario Lemieux is snubbed as “nouveau riche.” Ironically, Mario came to Pittsburgh from Quebec knowing not a word of English, and yet his neighbors now try to brush up his French.

    • http://lectiblog.blogspot.com/ lecti

      You’ll bankrupt gunmakers.

  • sqyntz

    guns don’t kill people, idiots kill people

    • http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

      Guns just make it easier.

      • sqyntz

        never underestimate the ingenuity of an idiot (with apologies to Douglas Adams)

    • Conan Librarian
    • awjt

      If all the idiots own all the guns, and all the smart people don’t, then they ain’t so smart is they?

      • joelogs

        Amen. That 9-year-old girl should have had a gun! Then she would have been completely safe.

        • Navin_Johnson

           This is basically the argument that fanatical gun extremists make all the time.

          • sqyntz

             if skunks had guns, people wouldn’t shoot at them

          • Navin_Johnson

             derp.

          • awjt

             Dat’s right, armed and skunkin’ DANGEROUS

    • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

      Far from killing people, we’re now advised by bumper stickers that “GUNS SAVE LIVES.” Go figure.

      • niktemadur

        Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear some regressive pundit say that “incidents like this are proof that we need more guns”.

    • dbergen

      I think the gun helps.

  • joeposts

    A giggling skunk smelling of bubble gum? KILL IT!

  • Mister44

    Holy crap – he WASN’T drunk? What an idiot. Yes, please file charges.

    • tylerdurden

      As opposed to it being ok if he had been drunk?

      • Mister44

         No – I’d file charges either way. If he were drunk it at least would make SOME sense on why he thought this would be a good idea.

  • http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

    The worst part (well, other than the little girl getting shot) is this: “Leindecker says the man hadn’t been drinking and he doesn’t know whether charges will be filed.” 

    I mean, if I’m driving a car, I’m expected to navigate that car in a way that I don’t run people over with it, even “accidentally”. Why shouldn’t gun owners be held to that standard, at least?

    • Boundegar

      Because the AAA doesn’t tell people the President is trying to take away their cars.

    • Martijn

      I fully understand that some people care a great deal about their right to own weapons, but can we at least agree that anyone who would pull the trigger without first clearly identifying what he’s shooting at, should never be allowed anywhere near a gun. Those are the people that kill people.

  • hassenpfeffer

    Ah, western PA, where any place 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh city limits is prime recruiting ground for the KKK.

  • Kludgegrrl

    Happy memories of childhood Thanksgivings in Western PA…  where I was not allowed outside of the house lest I be shot.  Seriously.  I was from NYC and I just thought that that what the rest of the country was like — filled with nutso hunters. 

    I felt much safer in (crime-ridden, 1970′s) New York.

    • Boundegar

      To be fair, most hunters are safe and responsible.  But most isn’t enough.

  • Henrix

    Well, dressing as a potential skunk hunter for Halloween could be scary.

    • smut clyde

       Suddenly my Sexy Honey Badger costume seems not such a good idea after all.

  • autark

    Isn’t this every Halloween at Dick Cheney’s house? This is just one of the party games they play… instead of pin the tail on the donkey, it’s dodge Uncle Dick’s Shotgun.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/NQYB6GSYQUDMZTGGHTGEXQI2CY Roberto Fernandez

    You smoke skunk, you don’t shoot it.

  • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

    It’s probably not a matter of poor eyesight or actually seeing her whole body and thinking she was a skunk. It’s what hunters call a “sound shot”: when a friggin moron shoots in the direction of a sound or a glimpse of movement, without making a solid visual identification of the target. When you hear someone say “I got off a good sound shot” in their hunting stories, you should turn down their invitation to go hunting together.

  • smut clyde

    a costumed 9-year-old girl was accidentally shot
    It is hard to imagine the concatenation of circumstances that might cause someone to ‘accidentally’ pick up a gun – perhaps believing it to be something else — and ‘accidentally’ pull the trigger.
    Perhaps ‘accident’ is the wrong word for ‘deliberate act with predictable consequences that one was too stupid to foresee’.

  • Richard

    I thought Halloween was 31st October? Why would you be having a Halloween party more than ten days early?

    Maybe they’re trying to get it out of the way before their Thanksgiving party on Friday and their Christmas party next week.

    • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

       It’s always Halloween here in Halloween Town.